Rules should be put in place to stop European clubs buying Brazil's best footballers during national championships, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said.

"The stadiums are emptying in Brazil, the games are less interesting, and I am preferring to watch English, Spanish, Italian championships. I'm even watching the Russian and Turkish ones. Soon I'll be watching Kazakhstan's," he said.

"Brazil 20 years ago was where the best football in the world was played. Today, the best football in the world is played in Spain, Britain, Italy, France, by players from Brazil, Argentina - Latin-American players."

The problem was that Brazil's clubs were unable to go through a national championship without their best players being transferred abroad.

That fate befell Lula's favourite Brazilian club, Sao Paulo's Corinthians, this year when four players were snapped up.

The Brazilian leader, a longtime football fan, said he raised the problem with the national football federation boss, Ricardo Teixeira, and he would talk it over with FIFA chief Joseph Blatter when the latter visits Brazil on September 29.